Russia's war in Ukraine

After months of grueling fighting, Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from the city of Severodonetsk, a key strategic stronghold in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. A regional Ukrainian military chief accused Russia of destroying most of the city's infrastructure during an intense shelling campaign.

Here are the latest headlines on Russia's war on Ukraine:

As he marked four months since Russia began its invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his nation “became a country in army boots.”

“Our way of life changed, but not our worldview. The path on which we are going to the goal changed, but the goal remained the same,” he continued

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine four months ago on Feb. 24.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Friday that the EU and NATO are gathering a "coalition" to "essentially" prepare for a war with Russia.

Commenting on Ukraine and Moldova joining the EU, Lavrov said the EU is not a military-political bloc, therefore, unlike NATO, the development of its relations with other countries does not create any threats or risks for Russia.

However, Russia perceives the rhetoric of the union had been increasingly aggressive and “Russophobic,” Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku.

The European Council granted Ukraine and Moldova EU candidacy status on Thursday in a bid to show support for the two countries in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The question of Ukraine and Moldova joining the EU was labelled "internal European affairs" by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, also on Friday. However, he added that it is crucial that a decision on the matter does not further affect Russia’s relations with the two countries or the European bloc.

“These are, of course, internal European affairs,” Peskov told reporters on a regular conference call.

Peskov's comments echo the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin who said last Friday that Russia “has nothing against” Ukraine entering the EU as it is the “sovereign decision of any country” to join an economic bloc.

Ukrainian forces have begun to withdrawn from Severodonetsk, but several units still remain in the Donbas city, as the operation is expected to last a few days, head of the Severodonetsk district military administration, Roman Vlasenko, told CNN.

“As of now, the Ukrainian military still remains in Severodonetsk,” Vlasenko said on Friday. “They are being withdrawn from the city at the moment. It started yesterday.”

Vlasenko went on to say that 568 civilians were also in the city, inside the Azot plant.

Some background: Amid intense urban combat, hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, took shelter in the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk. Unlike the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, it offers little protection below ground.

As with Azovstal, the Azot plant and its immediate surroundings became the focal point of Ukrainian resistance, frustrating Russian commanders.

Russia says it has encircled around 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas as it intensifies its efforts to capture Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, its defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a Friday briefing.

CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian military and regional administration for comment on Russia’s claims — which CNN has been unable to independently verify — but has yet to hear back.

Earlier on Friday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration conceded that Russian forces had made progress in some areas to the south of Lysychansk, namely Zolote and Toshkivka.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also said Moscow’s forces had targeted five ammunition depots in the Luhansk region, adding that Ukrainian forces were seeing high levels of attrition.

"To replenish the losses in manpower, Ukrainian command are forced to form separate rifle battalions formed by untrained, mobilized citizens in each regions towards Donetsk and Luhansk,” he said.

In the same area of Luhansk, the head of the Hirske military-civilian administration Оleksii Babchenko said that town had been “completely occupied” by Russian forces. The specifics have not yet been confirmed.

“Unfortunately, as of 8 a.m. today, Hirske territorial community is completely occupied,” Babchenko said in a televised address. “Despite the fact that there was a very strong fortified area near Zolote, the breakthrough was made from the direction of Orikhove-Toshkivka.

“The occupation regime is currently being established.

“As early as Tuesday (June 21), it was impossible to reach Hirske, to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate the population, because all roads were either not under our control, or already being fired at," he said.

Babchenko went on to say that around 60% of buildings in the town had been damaged.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Russia of using ''hunger as a weapon of war'' and holding ''the whole world hostage,'' ahead of a key gathering on Friday in Berlin.

US State Secretary Antony Blinken is among those attending the conference on the looming food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

She said the conference was called into action ''at very short notice'' and that 50 delegations, as well as 40 ministers, from around the world will be attending.

The top priority is to set up reliable transport routes to allow grain from Ukraine to be exported, she said of the food security conference.

The West has demanded that Russia stop the blockade of Ukrainian seaports to allow vast stores of grain to be taken to world markets as fears rise of famines in vulnerable regions.

The Berlin conference will take place as the leaders of the G7 countries prepare to meet in the Bavarian Alpine resort of Schloss Elmau between June 26 and 28.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to discuss financial aid for Ukraine with the G7 leaders by video link on Monday. 

European Union member states need to buy energy collectively and implement price caps on gas to prevent what could be a hard winter, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Friday.

“We need to form an energy bloc, we need to buy energy collectively, we need to make use of price caps and we need to coordinate better among ourselves," he added.

De Croo went on to say that the EU Commission "should really take the lead right now."

Europe has tried to reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas since the invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Europe's energy crisis escalated this month as Moscow further reduced supplies to Germany, Italy and other members of the European Union. Twelve EU countries have so far been affected by Russian gas supply cuts, the bloc's climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said on Thursday.

Gas supply in the EU is “currently guaranteed” but the situation is “to be taken seriously,” the EU Commission told CNN on Thursday.

On Thursday, the EU and Norway agreed to further strengthen their cooperation in the energy field, providing the EU with additional gas supplies.

With previous reporting from CNN’s Arnaud Siad.

It was more a question of when, rather than if, the remaining Ukrainian units in the eastern city of Severodonetsk would be withdrawn.

For the last several weeks, Russian forces have simply destroyed every defensive position the Ukrainians have adopted, pushing them into a few square blocks in and around the city’s Azot chemical plant.

But the Ukrainian military has clearly made the decision that there was nothing more to defend -- and that hundreds of civilians sheltering at the plant were in greater danger with every passing day.

According to the Institute for War, a US think tank that follows the campaign closely, "The loss of Severodonetsk is a loss for Ukraine in the sense that any terrain captured by Russian forces is a loss -- but the battle of Severodonetsk will not be a decisive Russian victory."

Now the battle moves across the Siverskiy Donets river to Lysychansk, the last city in Luhansk held by Ukrainian forces. And there are already signs that the Russians will use the same merciless tactic of area bombardment to grind down Ukrainian forces, deploying combat planes, multiple launch rocket systems and even short-range ballistic missiles such as the Tochka-U. 

Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, noted Friday: "There is a lot of military equipment. According to our information, at least six Tochka-U left in the direction of Lysychansk from Starobilsk only. One is enough destructive power -- six is a total disaster."

There are still large areas of the neighboring Donetsk region under Ukrainian control. The regional military administration says about 45% of Donetsk is held by Ukrainian forces, including the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

There are not many obvious defensive positions west of Lysychansk, in an area of open countryside. Ukrainian commanders will have to decide whether the whole pocket -- courageously defended for weeks -- is better abandoned for a more consolidated defense of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, the industrial belt of Donetsk.

The question is whether the losses inflicted on Russian forces in recent weeks will impair their ability and desire to gobble up more territory, especially as Ukraine deploys more accurate western weapons such as the HIMARS rocket systems.  

Equally, it's unclear whether the punishment endured by Ukrainian units in the Donbas region over the last two months has left them with enough resources to launch counter-attacks against Russian flanks (as they have attempted against Russian forces advancing from Kharkiv region in the north.)

The Kremlin has not veered from its ultimate objective of taking all of Donetsk and Luhansk. It now has almost all the latter. Completing the "special military operation" will still take weeks, and more likely months, if at all. It has become a classic war of attrition.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country is “grateful” to US President Biden and the American people for the latest package of $450 million in military aid.

The Biden administration on Thursday announced the additional military aid for Ukraine, with the United States giving the war-stricken country four more multiple launch rocket systems and artillery ammunition for other systems.

The package, which will be drawn from existing Defense Department stocks, also includes 18 patrol boats for monitoring coasts and rivers, and small arms.

The most significant part of the package is the four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), wheeled vehicles capable of launching barrages of guided rockets at targets up to approximately 40 miles away.

Zelensky tweeted on Friday: "We're grateful to [US President Joe Biden] and the American people for the decision to provide another $450 million defense aid package to Ukraine. This support, including additional HIMARS, is now more important than ever.